


Never and Always

by fits_in_frames



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: 7spells, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-20
Updated: 2006-04-20
Packaged: 2018-01-22 00:24:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1569209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fits_in_frames/pseuds/fits_in_frames
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She watches the lines around his eyes flex as he relaxes his smile.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never and Always

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt _cold hands, cold feet_.

"By the lake," she says, looking up from her feet just to see him smile.

He chuckles and tightens his fingers around hers, still looking straight ahead into the sunset. "We'd have to invite the Giant Squid."

She tucks a stray lock of auburn hair behind his ear with her free hand. She watches the lines around his eyes flex as he relaxes his smile.

"Minerva," he says, "you've just finished your schooling. I want you to go out and--"

"But that's not what I want, Albus," she interrupts.

"No," he says, pursing his lips, "and I know that, but I thought I'd try one last time."

She leans her head against his arm and feels the bounce in his step the whole way back to the party they'd abandoned two hours earlier.

*

"Diagon Alley," she says as he watches her unpack rolls of parchment. "In broad daylight."

When he walks towards her, his shoes click against the stone floor of her new office. "Now, Minerva," he says, picking up one of her self-inking quills and squirting himself in the eye before he can continue.

She coughs twice (he proclaims, later that night, that she will never learn how to laugh properly) and cleans his face and hands half by wand and half not.

*

"On the front steps," she says after a particularly long bout of silence in his office.

"As much as I appreciate it, Minerva, changing the subject will not make the decision whether or not to admit a werewolf to this school any easier."

She takes this as her cue to leave.

*

"In the Great Hall," she says as he kisses her neck once, twice, three times. His hand is cool and soft as it slips under the shoulder of her robe, and she doesn't stop him. For a brief moment, she imagines the looks on the faces of her students--particularly her seventh-year boys--if they actually did.

And then she suddenly shivers as he runs a finger up and down her spine. She leans back against him, resting her head on his shoulder and drawing her knees up on to the bed.

"Naked," she says with a hint of mischief, purrs, and kisses him.

*

"Right here, right now," she says, when he returns from the latest mission.

From behind him, Black and Pettigrew are staring at them, and she doesn't realize she's gripping his arm until he gently pries her fingers off and kisses her hand. He brushes past her and she Apparates away before she can say anything else.

*

"Never," she says, tight-lipped and pale, after they Apparate back to Hogsmeade from Little Whinging. "Not after tonight."

They face each other, and for a brief second, he suddenly looks very old to her, but it passes when he smiles sadly and squeezes her hand. "Good night, Minerva. Get some rest," he says, and swishes off into the Hog's Head.

*

"Tonight," she says, almost tipping over her half-empty wine glass on to her tartan robes. "We don't even have to tell anyone, Albus." All of the students and most of the teachers have gone to bed by now, and she's glad. After all, she's never been to a Yule Ball before.

He smiles kindly at her and coaxes the glass out of her hand. He glances around and, finding only Hagrid slumped in a dark corner, kisses her forehead for what seems like an eternity. "I won't tell a soul," he says, wraps his arm around her shoulders, and rocks her into blissful sleep.

*

"Before you leave again," she says when she reaches the top of the stairs outside his office and bolts in before he can tell her to stay or go.

He looks up at her from a very old-looking document he's holding in his good hand, over the top of his glasses. She catches her breath and smoothes her hand over her hair, leaning on his desk slightly. A soft May breeze rustles what she now recognizes as a map. She moves to grab it from him, but he is quicker than her. He always has been.

"Perhaps," he says slowly, putting the map somewhere under his desk, "when I return."

She studies his face carefully, then cups his chin in her hand and kisses his cheek for no real reason. "Promise me," she says without pulling away.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Minerva." He gently removes her hand, presses his lips to her fingertips, and she knows he's telling the truth.


End file.
